Journal of Agriculture
and Environmental Sciences

Technical Efficiency of Maize Farmers across Various Agro Ecological Zones of Ghana
Kwabena Nyarko Addai, Victor Owusu

Abstract
The study analyses the technical efficiency of maize farmers across various agro ecological zones of Ghana. To carry out this analysis, a translog stochastic production frontier function, in which technical inefficiency effects are specified to be a function of socioeconomic, institutional and environmental variables, is estimated using the maximum likelihood method. Cross sectional data was collected for the 2010 crop year from a sample of 453 maize farmers from the Bekwai Municipality, Nkoranza South District and Gushiegu District of the Forest, Transitional and Savannah Zone respectively. The mean technical efficiency of the sampled maize farmers across the three agro ecological zone is 64.1%. The mean technical efficiency of maize producers in the forest, transitional and savannah zones are 79.9%, 60.5% and 52.3% respectively. The results reveal that extension; mono cropping, gender, age, land ownership and access to credit positively influence technical efficiency. High input price, inadequate capital and irregularity of rainfall are the most pressing problems facing maize producers in the forest, transitional and savannah zones respectively. The study therefore recommends that policies that would improve extension service, education and development of crop varieties suitable to the different agro ecological zones should be pursued.

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